Six Flags Holland

superman

Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:17 PM

I went to SFH with two friends today. It was a Sunday, and we expected some crowds, but the park was really packed! There are 5 major coasters in this park, plus a wild mouse. All of them are Vekoma coasters, except for the Intamin/Stengel "Goliath", a relatively "small" hyper coaster ("only" 45 m first drop). The others are a SLC called "Condor", a LIM-powered steel maze coaster in the style of Joker's Jinx and the likes called "Superman, the ride", a classic forward-backward coaster with 3 inversions called "la via volta" and last, but not least, a woody called "robin hood". For each one of them we had to wait about an hour. That made our visit very meditative, as we only had a homoeopathic dose of coaster rides during our visit, making the admission of EUR 23,- quite an expensive one. Seeing those thousands and thousands of people lost in that artificial plaster architecture with nowhere to escape the emotional programming by music made me feel very melancholic. Why did they all come? Just to stand in line the whole day?

We did Robin Hood first. I am very sceptical of wood coasters as I have many not-so pleasant experiences with them. The ride was so much fun... it's not an extremely high coaster, but it has lots of curves and airtime. It's not rough at all. I really had the time of my life on it. The airtime moments are so cool. This is the first woody that really convinced me, and I've been on quite a few. Next we did Goliath.

Goliath is pretty intense. The lift speeds up towards the top, so you kind of "shoot" over the hill into the first drop that feels like free falling. The first valley of the ride really pulls a lot of Gs, but then you shoot up into one of the most intense airtime moments I have ever experienced. At 40m height you are only held back by the lap bar and safety belt... earth and sky are mixing together and you don't seem to know where up and down is for a moment, until your seat catches you on the way down from the hill. What follows next is a really unique maneuver: the train shoots up into what seems to be another airtime hill, but at the top dips 130 degrees sideways and then back, creating something in between a half-baked inline-twist and an overbanked curve. From the ground, this looks very absurd, but when you ride through it, it seems quite natural, almost like an inversion. It really makes it hard for a moment to differentiate what's up and down, what earth and what the sky, and all of that at 30 meters height... that's what makes this coaster really special. Shooting down from that, you enter the first helix. This is very intense. You go around for 540 degrees at full speed with heavy Gs close to the ground. Then the track bends upward into another hill. At the top of that hill, there is an airtime momement and the curve changes its direction from right to left. This feels wonderful. From the hill, you go into yet another helix, the 360 degrees, with the same forces as before. Another hill, another change of curve-direction, and you enter the two final bunny-hops that would definitely have you exit your seat wouldn't it be for your lap-bar and safety belt. At the very end, there is another very intense 180 degrees curve before you hit the brakes. Overall, a ride that doesn't let you go for a single second. The G-forces on the helixes are high and persist for a long time, making me dizzy when I exited. I also saw quite some people with whitened faces exiting the train when I was waiting in line. Also, the first valley of the track is very narrow and also seemed too intense for my taste. Due to that, it is not a relax- and submit-to-the-experience rides, but one that has you fighting and struggling against it's massive G-forces. That's what keeps this ride from being my favourite, it made me dizzy. Too much helix for me. However, it's amazing how much "flow" a coaster gains from not having a break run in the middle.

Next, we tried to do El Condor. The line didn't seem that long at first, but the coaster's capacity is not very high and so we waited over and hour in the end. At first, the queue is outside under the lift hill, but then you enter something that seems like a cow stable at first with some paintings on the half-dark walls that are as scary in their depiction as their painting technique. This took sooo long. After a while you start to dream away, and when you come back from dreaming, you find yourself in this ugly building with all those people waiting for something that you're not sure is really worth waiting for. Waiting forever. The conversations run out of topics, you look at the walls, and wish you could be somewhere else. We waited for over an hour like cows in the half dark. The ride itself is a suspended looping coaster. The layout is quite promising. However, the transitions are never smooth but beat you around, and you don't get to feel for the G-forces a lot, because your constantly preparing for the next shock beating you from right to left, from front to back... not a fun coaster. Looks almost nice from the outside. I would opt to tear this one down.

Next on our list was La Via Volta, the classic ubiquitous three-inversions forward-backward coaster. The line was quite short, but the ride as a very low capacity and so we waited another 30 minutes in the end. The experience is what you'd expect.

We tried to hit Goliath again once more, but it was broken down. So we rescued ourselves and our mood into the moody woody we did at first. The helped a little, even though there was another intense waiting time before we got our fix. Then we went over to superman. Another 1 hour wait that streched until after the official closing of the park. The cue is endless and leads you past the bureaus of Supermans "The daily planet" newspaper. Then you continue outside. They were only running 1 train on this coaster, so the capacity was really slow. I really wished I wouldn't have come here, I was so bored! When we finally sat in the train, another one of those trains I don't fit in very well because I am 189cm (6'4), the ride is very intense with tight unexpected twists, but on the other hand, it's just going round and round and round with a double inversion at the start and a corkscrew thrown in in the middle... and I was so dazed and annoyed that I didn't care too much. Okay. We exited the park, rather tired, a little annoyed and somewhat bored. So much for a fun weekend trip from Cologne to Six Flags Holland. The winner in the park is the little woody called Robin Hood. That one is fun. Goliath is also great but made me dizzy and feel sick. The others are kind of boring and also tend to beat you up.

But what's the worst part is those waiting times. I don't know what a park can do about that, but the waiting in line for 1 hour for every attraction definitely spoils the fun of such a visit. In comparison, sitting on your cozy couch at home is also a good passtime... and it doesn't cost 23,- EUR